Category: News

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Wiener, Chan Back Raising Social Security’s Payroll Tax Cap

by Troy Sambajon : sfpublicpress – excerpt

At a forum organized by retirees, congressional candidates appeal for the organization’s first-ever endorsement in a race for public office.

At a candidate forum hosted by California Alliance for Retired Americans, the two contenders for California’s 11th Congressional District seat agreed: High earners should pay more into Social Security…

In his opening remarks, Wiener supported changing the payroll tax cap, or the maximum amount of annual earnings subject to the Social Security payroll tax, which is currently $184,500. ”If you make $10 million a year,” Wiener said, “you pay the exact same amount into Social Security as that person who makes $184,500 a year.”

Chan’s opening made no mention of Social Security but she spoke about pushing for progressive taxation broadly.

Once the candidates started taking questions, the San Francisco Public Press asked, “Would you support eliminating the Social Security payroll tax cap, so that income above $184,500 is taxed the same as income below it? If not, would you support raising it?”

Wiener reiterated his position on raising the cap, adding a proposal to also restart the tax at $400,000 or $500,000.

Chan agreed: “I’m absolutely in agreement of lifting that cap, because the system is not equitable. We need to make sure that people who can pay are paying their fair share into the system.”

She went further, arguing that lifting the payroll tax cap isn’t enough. She said she wants broader progressive taxation on the wealthy to fund other aspects of the social safety net. Wiener also talked about supporting stronger progressive taxation and the need to reverse President Trump’s corporate tax cuts.

The candidates otherwise differ on taxing the ultra-wealthy. Chan supports Proposition 40, California’s one-time tax on billionaires, and backed San Francisco’s “Overpaid CEO Tax,” which voters rejected in June. Wiener opposed both…

Bay Area per capita income runs about triple the national average and the median pay in the technology industry clears the $184,500 cap outright. A change in the payroll tax cap would certainly affect this district of high-income earners… (more)

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Daly City rebels against Olympic Club’s Westlake Park proposal

By Angela Swartz, Freelance Writer : sfgate – excerpt

Beware Gifts that come with Conditions

The ‘whole idea of privatizing a public park is really nonsensical,’ protester says

Children blow bubbles and climb monkey bars on a typical foggy Thursday evening at Daly City’s Westlake Park. Just 100 feet away, in front of a pale yellow post-World War II building with a green awning, about 50 people clutch bright signs reading “No plastic park” and “Westlake Park is not for sale or lease.” Organizers, who are part of a group called Save Westlake Park, pass out neon-colored posters describing a “land grab” and flyers linking to a website with more information on their cause.
 
The Aug. 13 gathering at the park at 145 Lake Merced Blvd. brought together a new coalition of residents of the working-class suburb just south of San Francisco. They have banded together in hopes of halting a $10 million proposal to revamp Westlake Park. The Olympic Club, one of the oldest private athletic clubs in the world, has offered to make the changes — in exchange for some exclusive use of the field and facilities. … (more)

What is it about AstroTurf that YIMNYs like? This is becoming a national front to green grass trees. Who is behind this? We know who is paying for it, but why? And what role does Rec and Park pay in. this?

They cut down a tree, pour concrete or Astroturf and call it a park?

And then want the public to volunteer to maintain it?

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‘Independent’ super PAC paying Wiener campaign staffers, records show

By Ian Firstenberg : 48hills – excerpt

Families for an Affordable San Francisco, an Independent Expenditure PAC supporting Scott Wiener’s congressional bid, was the primary employer for a number of staffers who also work on Wiener’s official campaign—something that would have been illegal until recently and is still in a shady political arena, experts say.
Under federal law, independent expenditure super PACs are explicitly prohibited from coordinating with campaigns. That’s because IEs can take unlimited money, and contributions to a candidate’s campaign committee are limited.
The Federal Elections Commission in 2024 issued an advisory saying that IEs and candidates can share fundraising for canvassers. That ruling is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit.
In several cases, Federal Elections Commission records show, staffers have been paid during the same period by both the Wiener for Congress Campaign and Families for Affordable San Francisco.
A former staffer, who worked briefly for the Wiener campaign, shared documents exclusively with 48hills that identify the super PAC as their employer. They noted that a similarly structured employment agreement, with Families as the employer, was circulated “to about 12 people.” Given that the Scott Wiener for Congress 2026 runs Wiener’s campaign, the former staffer expected that committee to be their employer.
“Not only have I never seen this before, but I have only seen it that campaigns and independent expenditures have zero communication, zero coordination,” they said in an exclusive interview with 48hills.
The former staffer, who shared details on the condition of anonymity, said that when they received the employment agreement that listed Families for an Affordable San Francisco as the primary employer, they flagged the concerns to higher ups. They got no response from them and chose to leave the campaign because of the legal concerns…

Jim Sutton, a lawyer who is an expert on election law, told us that the situation is, at the very least, questionable… 
(more)

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Albertsons is infuriating Bay Area shoppers over vacant grocery stores

By Susan Guerrero : sfgate – excerpt

Town Hall July 23, 2026 on the Towering plans at the Marina Safeway

In the heart of downtown Larkspur, a tiny shopping center has become the grave site of a former Lucky Supermarket. The building, with its barren storefront and sealed doors, has haunted the neighborhood since 2023, yet there are currently no plans to open another grocery store in its place.

Tina McArthur, a Larkspur resident and board president of the historic Lark Theater, blames the building’s owner: Albertsons Companies.

“I think it’s terrible that they just left their building like that,” McArthur said. “The lights are still on. … I really don’t think they care one bit.”

The Lucky store is not an outlier. Albertsons — the parent company of Safeway, Vons and other major supermarkets — owns dozens of vacant surplus properties across the U.S., including at least seven vacant California stores listed for sale. An SFGATE investigation found that Albertsons appears to have a history of using its vast real estate portfolio to block the opening of competing grocers through restrictive land covenants or by keeping its properties vacant. In some cases, Albertsons has introduced controversial development plans on its properties that could raze existing supermarkets like Trader Joe’s in Oakland’s Rockridge neighborhood and Safeway in San Rafael without replacing those markets.

Albertsons could leave even more vacant properties on the market as the grocery company plans to shutter an unknown number of underperforming stores in California, and beyond, after its failed merger with the Kroger Company…

Grocery companies that keep properties vacant or add covenants to prevent future stores contribute to limited food access in communities, according to Christopher Leslie, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine…

The race for housing  Albertsons’ impacts on grocery availability in the Bay Area are likely to only increase as the grocery conglomerate flexes its muscle into property development. Align Real Estate and Albertsons are developing housing projects at Safeway locations throughout the Bay Area, including plans to build almost 3,500 units of housing across San Francisco’s Marina, Bernal Heights, Outer Richmond and Fillmore districts. The proposed residential housing project that could demolish the Safeway in San Rafael is not part of the Align Real Estate portfolio and is instead managed by Mill Creek Residential…(more)

Lots to take in here. I can remember hearing about food deserts from Malia Cohen years ago. Now we all are being faced with them.

What do we belive and what can be done to break those covenants? The food deserts are yet another reason to blame Wiener density bills for the loss of grocery stores as grocery chains are playing into his “HOUSING ONLY” zoning directives, except when he needs an exception and then he creates one..

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Newsom Proved Them Wrong

By SHIFT-BAY AREA: substack – excerpt

When Bay Area transit leaders are backed into a corner, they rely on a familiar, patronizing refrain: “The public just doesn’t understand how transit funding works.”…

The False Claim: The transit establishment’s response was swift, arrogant, and entirely dismissive. In KQED’s recent reporting on the Connect Bay Area Act, campaign spokesman Jeff Cretan dismissed proposals to redirect money from major capital projects toward transit service…

They Already Did It: Earlier this year, Newsom negotiated a financing package allowing Bay Area transit agencies to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars from state funds that had already been allocated for transit capital projects.

The largest share of those capital dollars had originally been reserved for construction of the San Jose BART extension. Instead, they became the source of loans designed to keep existing transit systems operating.

As columnist Daniel Borenstein observed, the package did not require new state money. It relied on capital funds that had already been committed to construction projects, temporarily converting those resources into operating support through a loan structure.

The accounting mechanism may have been creative.

But the result was unmistakable.

Capital resources were used to sustain operations.

Exactly the scenario transit advocates now insist cannot happen… (more)

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Landline service could end for good across the Bay Area and California

By Amanda Bartlett : sfgate – excerpt (audio track)

AT&T is hoping to remove landline service in several parts of California, raising concern among residents who say they rely on the service for myriad reasons…

AT&T secured a big win in its lengthy battle to pull landline service across the state of California after the Federal Communications Commission approved a petition from the telecommunications giant last week to end the service. The plan would cut off access to 184,000 households starting June 1, 2027, the Mercury News reported, though it remains unclear how many homes in the Bay Area would be affected.

“Only 3% of households we serve in California still use traditional phone service. We’re taking a phased, year-long approach to upgrade customers in these areas where better, more reliable services are available,” AT&T said in a recent news release, adding that “no customer will be left without access to phone or 911 service.”… (more)

 

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We are told that affordability is the Number One issue for voters this year

Investigating the Safeway closures turned into a multitude of detailed investigations that are summed up here rather well on this site by agricultural organizations.  https://www.affordabilitywatchca.org 
…
They cover some of the major reasons I have been talking about for the high cost of food and huge changes In California’s agricultural industry. https://www.affordabilitywatchca.org/food

This week we saw some possible good news on the Marina Safeway. Someone is taking the nearby park issue seriously according to the sfist.

Opponents Say Proposed 25-Story Marina Safeway Project May Not Be Eligible For Fast-Tracking

By Leeanne Maxwell : sfist – excerpt

The proposed 790-unit Marina Safeway redevelopment was granted fast-track status under a state housing law, but opponents argue the project may not actually qualify because the law requires that the majority of the surrounding land already be developed for “urban uses.”

The latest challenge to the proposed 25-story Marina Safeway redevelopment centers on whether the project should have been allowed to bypass a full environmental review, as the Chronicle reports. In a letter signed by several neighborhood groups, Marina Supervisor Stephen Sherrill argues the project does not qualify for streamlining under Assembly Bill 2011 because the law reportedly requires at least 75% of adjoining parcels to already be developed for “urban uses.”

Sherrill contends the requirement isn’t met because much of the property surrounding the Safeway site consists of parks and open space, including Marina Green, the Marina Yacht Harbor, and nearby land managed by SF Recreation and Park or the National Park Service at Fort Mason...(more)

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Supervisor Dorsey wants city-funded nonprofits to report their lobbying efforts at City Hall.

By J.D. Morris, Alyce McFadden : sfchronicle – excerpt
non profits paying lobbyists

Can’t happen fast enough…

Should city-funded nonprofits in San Francisco have to disclose their lobbying activities in the same way that for-profit corporations do? One city lawmaker thinks so, and he’s working on legislation to enact the idea.

Supervisor Matt Dorsey intends to propose an ordinance that would eliminate a provision in city law that exempts nonprofits from local rules requiring organizations to register their lobbyists and publicly report when they seek to influence officials at City Hall.

In a Wednesday letter to city lawyers asking for help preparing the ordinance, Dorsey said the legislation was intended to create more transparency around how city-funded nonprofits are allocating their resources. San Francisco has roughly doubled its spending on nonprofits since 2019, the Chronicle previously reported, but Dorsey noted that the city has simultaneously seen a “troubling pattern” of “ethical scandals, mismanagement” and other problems among nonprofits that provide crucial services.

Dorsey submitted the letter, which is likely to face pushback from nonprofits and their political allies, the same day supervisors sat for a marathon hearing to receive public comment about Mayor Daniel Lurie’s nearly $17 billion city budget proposal. Hours after the meeting of the supervisors’ appropriations committee began, the line of people waiting to speak still snaked through the corridors of City Hall. People sat huddled on the marble floors, some sporting matching shirts and jackets representing nonprofits and community groups… (more)

How many non-profits spend money on lobbyists? We know that some of them do, but., probably not the many.

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Citizens’ Democracy Report – Massive fee increase for citizens’ ballot arguments

by Patrick Monnette-Shaw and John Crabtree

Breaking news on City Hall Proposal for 400% increases proposed for both ballot argument filing fees and per-word fees. A Citizens’ Democracy Report & Citizens’ Anti-Corruption Report Breaking News Story.

Mayor Lurie’s revised plan to increase filing fees and per-word fees for paid ballot arguments in the official Voter Information Pamphlet (VIP), which is mailed to voters in the City & County of San Francisco; and his new plan to eliminate publishing the legal text of each ballot measure in San Francisco’s VIP. Both measures will weaken democratic elections in San Francisco, and likely hand over even more power to special-interest recipient committees funded by billionaires to adversely influence San Francisco elections.

There are two companion Ordinances being heard at either the Budget and Appropriations Committee on June 17 at 10:00 a.m., or the next day on June 18 (apparently if the Committee runs out of time on 6/17). Both measures are being rushed through the Board of Supervisors Budget and Appropriations Committee without adequate public review. Although the Mayor’s Budget Director submitted both pieces of legislation on Monday June 1, it took two full work weeks until Friday June 12 before the public learned the legislation would be heard five days later on June 17… (more)

The two measures are Agenda Items 6 and 7 on the Appropriations Committee meeting agenda…

UPDATE: The issues were heard at the Appropriations Committee and were tabled by the Chair, Connie Chan. THEY NEED TO BE WATCHED AS THEY WILL COME BACK.

The second Ordinance, Board File #260604, will “remove the requirement that the Department of Elections publish the legal text of ballot measures in the Voter Information Pamphlet sent to voters before each election, and allow the Director of Elections to determine the format of the Voter Information Pamphlet without the Ballot Simplification Committee’s approval.”… (more)

In place of including the legal text of each ballot measure in the Voter Guide, voters would be forced to locate it on-line, at a Branch Library, in-person at the Department of Elections, or by e-mail or U.S. Mail. The costs of providing it by e-mail or U.S. mail — which may ultimately cost more than including it in the VIP — were not estimated for the consideration of this proposal.

The Ordinance to eliminate publishing the legal text in the Voter Guide would become effective 31 days after passage — meaning it would go into effect for the November 2026 election.

Therefore, all of the Charter Amendments the Mayor is introducing for his “Commission Streamlining” reform ballot measures will have their legal text kept out of the VIP in what appears to be a creative way to keep those ballot measures’ legal text as far from the voters as possible… (more)

Patrick Monette-Shaw will continue his breaking-news reporting on all of these developments in the Westside Observer as well.